Steelheart, a 2013 young adult sci-fi/fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson, is the first installment of The Reckoners trilogy. The story takes place in dystopian Chicago, dubbed “Newcago,” which is overrun by evil superhumans called Epics and ruled by a functionally invulnerable tyrant named Steelheart. David Charleston, an 18-year-old boy whose father Steelheart killed 10 years before, joins a rebel group called the Reckoners hoping that they will help him take revenge on Steelheart. Borrowing elements from comic books and superhero stories, the novel explores themes of revenge, power, and the balance between chaos and order. Sanderson is the author of several fantasy books, many of which belong to his interconnected universe called the Cosmere (including The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, and Warbreaker). This guide uses the 2013 Random House Children’s Books First Edition in hardcover.

Plot Summary

Ten years before the story begins, eight-year-old David and his father enter a bank. An Epic named Deathpoint enters and casually murders several people. Steelheart arrives and challenges Deathpoint, and David’s father—believing in Steelheart’s integrity—shoots Deathpoint in the head. However, the bullet grazes Steelheart’s cheek, making him bleed despite his imperviousness to all firepower. Enraged at his discovered vulnerability, Steelheart kills David’s father and everyone else at the bank. Only David escapes, and he vows to take revenge on Steelheart.

By present day, Old Chicago has transformed into the steel city of Newcago, and David embarks to join the Reckoners—an underground rebel group dedicated to killing Epics. David presumes the Reckoners will next target a precognition Epic named Fortuity, so he follows Fortuity and waits. A woman named Megan Tarash lures Fortuity away from the crowds, and David comes to her assistance when her plan goes awry. Megan tries to shrug David away, but he helps her kill Fortuity. They escape in a garbage truck with the other Reckoners: Jonathan “Prof” Phaedrus, Tia, Abraham, and Cody.

The Reckoners interrogate David, who convinces them to target the most powerful Epic they’ve ever faced: Steelheart. David tells them about his extensive notes on Epics and the Reckoners, which he left in his bedroom. Cody, Megan, and David go to retrieve the notes, but Enforcement soldiers and an illusionist Epic named Refractionary are already waiting for David, so the Reckoners formulate a plan to trick them. David collects his notes while Cody and Megan neutralize the sniper and Refractionary. Before returning to base, David misleads a soldier by suggesting a new Epic, Limelight, is planning to overthrow Steelheart.

Equipped with his notes, David explains his plan to kill Steelheart: Impersonate an Epic, kill Steelheart’s inner circle, and assassinate him. The main problem is determining Steelheart’s weakness. To initiate the plan, the team needs a unique weapon—something that they can attribute to an Epic’s powers. Abraham, Megan, and David visit a traveling weapons merchant named Diamond and buy a weapon called a gauss gun, which can nearly destroy a building with one blast. Before they leave, one of Steelheart’s closest allies—an Epic named Nightwielder—arrives for an appointment, and the Reckoners hide. Abraham quietly makes an escape tunnel using Reckoner technology, but Nightwielder hears them working. Improvising, David emerges to distract him and, coincidentally, finds a way to prove the Epic’s weakness: UV light.

The Reckoners escape back to the base. Prof has added a new step to the plan: They need to attack like a true contending Epic, so their first target will be the city’s power plant. During the mission, David and Megan navigate toward the supply of power cells, which are necessary for charging the gauss gun, but unwitting civilians reroute them to the elevator shaft. David uses Reckoner technology to carve handholds from the steel shaft. Partway up, a couple of guards shine their flashlights directly on them, but David and Megan somehow remain unnoticed. David discovers an unmapped room, which they scour for secret files and data chips. They soon reach their destination, steal the power cells, change into lab coat disguises, and evacuate with the rest of the building as the Reckoners detonate the first bombs.

After destroying the power plant, Prof and Megan have a heated disagreement. Unlike Prof and David, Megan thinks Steelheart does relatively good work maintaining the city’s economy and basic utilities, and among all the horrible Epics across the country, Steelheart doesn’t deserve to die. Tia announces that she excavated the bank from 10 years before, where they hope to discover clues about Steelheart’s weakness. Inside the buried bank, David discovers his father’s steel corpse and becomes convinced that Steelheart’s weakness pertains to his father somehow. Prof orders Tia to continue studying the bank’s contents anyway.

The Reckoners launch a mission to kill Conflux—the Epic that heads Steelheart’s Enforcement soldiers—but the operation flops when Nightwielder attacks. David chases him away with a UV flashlight, but Enforcement soldiers pursue them and surround the area with blockades. David uses the gauss gun to make shortcuts for him and Megan, but firepower overwhelms them and injures Megan. David carries her into hiding, but Enforcement soldiers catch up. At the last moment, Prof arrives and single-handedly wins the battle. Elsewhere, Cody reaches the limo and finds Conflux bound in the trunk.

Back at the base, Tia performs surgery on Megan, but Megan dies. The Reckoners interrogate Conflux and discover that he is Steelheart’s prisoner rather than his confidante. The Reckoners schedule a final confrontation with Steelheart in three days’ time. They make Soldier Field their battleground, creating tunnels and sniper holes and planning for Steelheart’s potential weaknesses. After three days, the Reckoners signal Steelheart, and he comes. Somehow, their plans are compromised: Nightwielder finds David immediately and chases him underneath the stands. As David runs, he sees Megan and assumes she is an illusion from an Epic named Firefight; however, he can touch her, and she seems to vaguely remember him. David realizes that Megan has always been Firefight. Confused by her memories, Megan runs away. David kills Nightwielder and runs to help Prof, who is battling Steelheart alone.

Soon, the Reckoners exhaust all their ideas for killing Steelheart. Steelheart kills Prof, and David realizes the weakness: Only someone who doesn’t fear Steelheart (like David’s father) could kill him. David tricks Steelheart into taking his gun, into which he stuffed a detonator. The Epic pulls the trigger, and because Steelheart is the only person who doesn’t fear himself, the detonated explosives kill him. Prof awakens and protects David from the blast, revealing that Prof is also an Epic. Before the Reckoners leave, David finds Megan, but reincarnation confused her memories and emotions, and she needs more time to think. David leaves with the other Reckoners, committing to helping Newcago rebuild into a better society.